Testimonials From Across the Country Highlight the Devastating Impact the High Price of Prescription Drugs Has on Families 

Washington, D.C. – Today, the Campaign for a Family Friendly Economy, Main Street Alliance and Patients for Affordable Drugs Now launched a storybook highlighting the devastating impact the high price of prescription drugs has on families across the country. The stories illustrate the urgent need for congressional action to lower the price of prescription drugs to help save lives and improve the economic stability of families. 

As Amy Brady, a working mom of two children who have life-threatening chronic medical conditions and wife of a combat veteran, shares in the storybook, “Lowering the cost of prescription drugs would be a huge relief. No family should have to choose between the costs of living and taking care of a child with chronic illness.” 

High prescription drug prices are forcing American families to make the impossible choice of paying for life-saving medications, or other essential expenses like rent and utilities. Prescription drug spending makes up around 10 percent of the cost of healthcare in the U.S., and more and more patients are concerned about how they can afford the medicine they need. The stories in this book make clear that Congress needs to take action to reduce the price of prescription drugs. 

“These stories depict a heartbreaking reality: Today in America, thousands of families will choose between putting food on the table and paying for life-sustaining medications,” said Sondra Goldschein, Executive Director of the Campaign for a Family Friendly Economy. “Congress must take action now to lower costs for working families by reigning in the price of prescription drugs. Families can’t wait any longer for this relief.”

“The high cost of prescription drugs impacts everyone, including small business owners. The vast majority of small business owners are folks who are struggling to pay their bills and the high cost of prescription drugs just helps make that harder. Main Street Alliance members like Anna Ringstad deserve better. Let’s pass lower drug prices NOW!,” said Shawn Phetteplace, Midwest Regional Manager for the Main Street Alliance. 

“These patient stories reflect the struggles of millions of Americans who are harmed by the high prices of prescription drugs,” said David Mitchell, a patient with incurable blood cancer whose drugs carry a list price of more than $900,000 per year and founder of Patients For Affordable Drugs Now. “These stories reinforce the urgency for Senate action to pass a reconciliation package including the comprehensive drug pricing reforms already passed by the House of Representatives. We are depending on Congress to stand with patients – against Big Pharma profiteering – and lower drug prices now.”

The Campaign for a Family Friendly Economy is dedicated to improving the lives of working families. At the ballot box and in the halls of power, we build grassroots support for solutions that would transform the lives of American families, like lower cost prescription drugs, paid family and medical leave and affordable elder and childcare. The Campaign for a Family Friendly Economy currently has active campaigns led by state teams in Wisconsin, Arizona, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and Virginia. 

Main Street Alliance of Wisconsin is a state chapter of the Main Street Alliance, a national organization founded by small business leaders in 2008. MSA organizes small businesses around issues that matter most for businesses, their employees, and the community they serve. MSA aims to build a powerful, self-funded, multi-racial, small business membership organization that can shift our economic narrative, wield political power, and win policy reform for small business owners, employees, and communities.

Patients For Affordable Drugs Now is a bipartisan national patient organization focused exclusively on achieving policy changes to lower the price of prescription drugs. The organization amplifies the voices of Americans struggling under crushing drug prices to make policymakers and elected officials see the heavy toll of high-priced drugs. P4AD does not accept contributions from any organizations that profit from the development or distribution of prescription drugs.